Chapter II.—Unity of the three divine persons.

There is then one God and Father, and not two or three; One who is; and there is no other besides Him, the only true [God]. For “the Lord thy God,” saith [the Scripture], “is one Lord.”^13051305    Deut. vi. 4; Mark xii. 29. And again, “Hath not one God created us? Have we not all one Father?^13061306    Mal. ii. 10. And there is also one Son, God the Word. For “the only-begotten Son,” saith [the Scripture], “who is in the bosom of the Father.”^13071307    John i. 18. And again, “One Lord Jesus Christ.”^13081308    1 Cor. viii. 6. And in another place, “What is His name, or what His Son’s name, that we may know?”^13091309    Prov. xxx. 4. And there is also one Paraclete.^13101310    i.e., “Advocate” or “Comforter;” comp. John xiv. 16. For “there is also,” saith [the Scripture], “one Spirit,”^13111311    Eph. iv. 4. since “we have been called in one hope of our calling.”^13121312    1 Cor. xii. 13. And again, “We have drunk of one Spirit,”^13131313    Eph. iv. 4. with what follows. And it is manifest that all these gifts [possessed by believers] “worketh one and the self-same Spirit.”^13141314    1 Cor. xii. 11. There are not then either three Fathers,^13151315    Comp. Athanasian Creed. or three Sons, or three Paracletes, but one Father, and one Son, and one Paraclete. Wherefore also the Lord, when He sent forth the apostles to make disciples of all nations, commanded them to “baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,”^13161316    Matt. xxviii. 19. not unto one [person] having three names, nor into three [persons] who became incarnate, but into three possessed of equal honour.